An image-casting LED flashlight is known, for example, from German utility model 200 06 761 that has a housing adapted to hold a battery and a battery-powered LED light source mounted on the housing and directed forward along an axis. Three rods extending parallel to the axis forward from the housing slidably support an image holder forward of the LED light source and holding an image carrier axially aligned with the light source, and a lens holder forward of the LED light source and of the image carrier and holding a lens. The image carrier can be a photographic slide, that is a mainly transparent piece of plastic or glass with an image on it, or an opaque piece of metal or plastic into which a hole having the shape of the image is cut. Thus the light from the LED passes through the image carrier and is focused by the lens so the image can be cast on a surface. The two holders can slide on the rods so as to sharpen the image, to make the reciprocal of the image width and of the projection width correspond to the reciprocal of the focal width of the lens.
Such a flashlight can be used to cast the image, using for example a company logo as a pointer. Alternately, different images can be loaded so that someone making a presentation can have different pointers, or the image can simply be advertising when the flashlight is a key-chain giveaway.
The disadvantage of this system is that it is fairly complex and of bulky and cumbersome construction. It is not something one would drop in a pocket or pocket book, as that would likely damage the lens or image holder. In addition adjusting the relative positions of the lens and image holders is difficult, but needs to be done often to focus the image sharply at different distances.